Just A Joke
by isobeljones2000
Summary: 'Someone asked you out as a joke and you're really sad now, so now I'm scared to ask you out for real.' AU Nick/Katherine


_"_ _Someone asked you out as a joke and you're really sad now, so now I'm scared to ask you out for real." AU_

Nick looks up distractedly from his desk, which only really resembles a mound of paperwork by this point in the week, due to both extreme procrastination and having been a little busy for the entire week trying to put the media off swarming around his house like insects. It's the first time he's been properly back to work since the nano-virus incident, and now he has to do what a CEO does best – bring his company back from the brink.

Over the mass of folders shoved to one side of his desk in disgust, he can just pick out the familiar dark-haired head of Katherine. She went back to work just yesterday, though she certainly doesn't look a lot better than she had done curled in a hospital bed for the last week. But that was Katherine all over, really – if there was a chance of working she would always take it, over actual recovery.

Almost unconsciously he adjusts his seat position so he has a better view of his co-worker – just in case, he will express indignantly if ever queried. Katherine's face is turned away from him, but her cheeks are still sunken and overly pale, and her burnt hand is swathed in thick bandage underneath the sleeve of a sagging blazer. She's not well; anyone can see that half a mile off. Apart from Katherine, obviously. She's never been one to admit any kind of defeat, and even though she looks like she's at death's door right now it's unlikely she'll concede that she even has a mild cold.

Nick realises that staring at his coworkers is probably just another hidden form of procrastination on his part and forces himself to stare down at the forms that demand a level of concentration that he really doesn't have right now. Not for the first time, or probably the last either, he hollowly wondered why he ever accepted this position.

When his gaze drifts back up to the window of his office again, a couple of who he vaguely recognises as the tech guys from Floor 2 are wandering casually across the office. This isn't a particularly surprising event; they often come up here to collect research that Nick's old department had been working on so they can implement it in their own miraculous inventions and take all the credit. Not to mention they're often the most arrogant members of the company. Instead of swaggering over to the photocopier or the filing cabinets, like usual, the two men head over to where Katherine works, both casually leaning against the front of the desk as she's forced to glare up at them. This isn't anything new either, really; when she had been CEO Katherine had the full ability to fire people at will, which she did have a habit of doing when she got annoyed. And she got annoyed fairly often. That tended to give her the respect she demanded.

But now, when she had been disgraced and removed from power…?

They're talking. Or, rather, the tech guys are talking. Katherine looks thoroughly fed up as she moodily picks at a circuit that she's working on, their chatter obviously grinding into her short nerves even more than usual. Nick hopes she can deal with them. In any other situation, he has no doubt that her barbed tongue will do her job for her, but she's not herself right now.

To his surprise, a moment later Nick finds himself stepping out of his office, careful not to draw attention to his movements. It's just to check on her, he assures himself.

So it happens that he's just close enough so he hears one of the guys coolly ask Katherine if she wants to go out with him.

 _What?_

Katherine's obviously as taken aback as Nick is. "Um…" she stutters.

"Nah. Actually –" The man looks like he's struggling to contain a smirk, not very well at that. "Actually… I think I might go ask someone out who isn't such a poisonous witch, if that's okay with you, _CEO_."

"Oh –!" Katherine quickly drops her gaze in shocked realisation as both men bark with laughter. Nick quickly looks away to hide his own look of suddenly seething indignation. It was a joke. Just a joke. How could they?

"See you around, Dr Calvin," remarks the first one nastily.

And the muffled laughter continues all the way down the corridor as they head back downstairs to their own department, not even maintaining the pretence of coming down here for work purposes any more. No doubt Katherine had yelled at them or docked their pay at some point during her reign as Calimov executive, and they fancied a little revenge now that she couldn't fight back.

Nick knows he could probably use his newfound powers-that-be to fire them on the spot, but without any concrete evidence to use to dismiss them, he isn't keen on trying to take them down. He isn't Katherine, after all, much as he may try to pretend he's as strong as her sometimes.

But he has to say something.

"Hey, Katherine. Want coffee?" he inquires nonchalantly from a few metres away, making it look like he had just exited his office instead of having been crouched down a few metres away from his co-worker for the last minute and a half anyway.

Katherine barely looks up, the fingers of her unbandaged right hand fixated on the circuit-board gripped just a little too tightly, so that Nick can see the white tension in her knuckles as she continues to work. "Since when does the _boss_ go and get coffee for his employees?" she inquires bitterly to the desk.

Nick shrugs, keeping his tone light. "Since I became boss, I guess."

It's still the wrong thing to say. But unusually, Katherine doesn't retaliate with some sharp comeback, although she obviously registers the harsh reminder with downcast eyes and tight lips.

"So, er… would you like coffee?" Nick repeats a little softer.

"Um –" Katherine seems to think about it, before reasoning with herself and shrugging listlessly. "I guess."

He nods, satisfied by this response. "Come on then."

Finally Katherine raises her eyes to meet his, although they're tired and unhappy-looking. "…What?"

Nick touches her shoulder casually, beckoning with the other to the door. "Come on then, I said," he repeats.

"Where?" she asks dully.

"To get coffee," Nick recites for the third time. "There's a nice little place just down the road that does a great gingerbread latte, which Will has reliably informed me is possibly the sweetest and tastiest drink of all time. Even Eve agrees, and she can't even drink it. Apparently she could accurately read the expression on Will's face when he had just 'partaken in the caffeinated beverage', so that's her justification."

Nick realises he's rambling and shuts up. Katherine stares at him as if trying to deduce whether he was being genuine, her eyes clouded over in distrust. "Plus…" he starts, unsure where the sentence is going.

 _I like you I like you I like you._

Her eyes are so dejected, so hopeless.

"Plus, I think we could both do with a break," Nick finishes somewhat weakly, unable to make himself utter the incriminating words, although suddenly it's all he wants to do.

She shrugs. "I'm fine," she mutters.

"Plus I like you."

The words escape in a rushed jumble and Katherine's gaze shoots sharply up to meet his.

Nick mentally hits himself. 'Timing, Nick?' he imagines Rebecca mocking him. She's right, of course. Perhaps that wasn't the best time to broach that subject, when Katherine's in one of her foulest moods, and for good reason too.

Katherine actually rises from her seat, though she still has to glare up at Nick even from a fully standing position. "Look, Nick, I'm really not in the mood for you to be doing this –" she starts furiously.

"I know – I know, bad timing," Nick hurriedly backtracks. "I just thought you should know."

"Know what?"

 _Think of something intelligent to say, you idiot._

"I just thought you should know that I heard what they just said to you."

Katherine huffs, a frustrated exhale. "Oh. Great. Anything else you'd like to add to that? Any way to make me feel even unhappier than I already am right now, because I'd just _love_ to hear it? Seriously, go ahead."

"And I also thought you should know that I _do_ like you," Nick persists, doing his best not to react to the evident misery of his friend.

Katherine's eyes narrow to slits, evidently hurt and defensive all in one. "You're lying."

"What am I supposed to say?" Nick asks in frustration, suddenly fervent to get that defeated expression off her face. " _'_ _Don't be stupid, Katherine. I like you. Do you want to go and grab coffee with me?_ Will that convince you?"

A glimmer of indecision in her eyes. Katherine frowns in uncertainty, losing her nerve and her anger all in one. It gives Nick hope. "You're lying," she repeats, but less surely the second time, clinging to the words as an only lifeline.

Nick smiles, moving closer, lowering his voice to a soft undertone as he watches his colleague's expression visibly alter with his words. "Don't be stupid, Katherine. I like you. Do you want to go and grab coffee with me?"

Katherine's eyes widen in realisation for the second time today, but this time it's a stunned half-smile that alights on her face as Nick wordlessly drags her out of the seat and heads off towards the stairwell in search of gingerbread lattes, a similar smile tugging at his own lips as they do so.

 _A/N) Another Nick/Katherine story, half-written a while ago. I swear, I'm trash for this couple XD  
Review for a scrummy gingerbread latte!_


End file.
